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Tuesday, February 18, 2014

Old Chinese Ways To See Ghosts (見鬼術)

When the
old Chinese folks experienced with strange or unbelievable issues, they will
say:

“見鬼了！”

“I must have been
seeing a ghost!”

Well, that
was a figure of speech and no ghosts were seen of course. Do you know that
there are indeed many methods that enable one to physically ‘see’ our ghostly
brothers and sisters? Let’s exclude those who have 3rd eyes or
psychic eyes of course.

The water method

This method
was taught by my grandma many years ago. The method is simple:

First the
best time to see ghosts is during the ‘ghost month’ i.e. the 7th
month of Luna calendar. When the time is right, choose an isolated road
junction where there won’t be too much traffic during midnight. Now we must
prepare a bail of water, a piece of newspaper, some joss sticks and candles.

Go to the
junction at midnight. After that put the water bucket near the road junction,
light the incense and candles; cut two holes in the newspaper. Sit in front of
the water and peep through the holes towards the surface of the water.

Soon we
will see images reflected on water surfaces and those are said to be the
ghostly image of those good brothers and sisters.

Animal tears method

Some animal
tears when applied onto our eye lids are believed to give us temporary ability
to see ghosts. But I would caution anyone who wanted to try these methods due
to hygienic reasons as animal tears contain germs that can harm our eyes:

·People
believe that when a dog howls, it has perceived ghosts in the vicinity. So, if
anyone who collects its tears and applied onto his/her eye lids; this person
may also see ghosts.

·Tears
of water buffalo when applied onto eye lids may let a person to see ghosts
temporarily.

Sit in place of yin god/goddess

To try this
method, one must go to a yin god/goddess temple, such as the ‘land god’ (城隍) at midnight.
Remove the statue and sit in place of the statue. It is said that the person
will see ghosts come to pay respects to this yin god/goddess as what ordinary
folks would do.

Using old terracotta roof tiles

There are
two ways:

Method 1:

We will
need odd number of players, i.e. 1, 3, 5 etc. Naturally, the lesser number of
players the better. After that, pour some water collected from a stream onto an
old roof tile and then let this water flow into a glass. After that one must
place the glass of water on the floor and the old roof tile on the glass.

Now, the
players must form a circle by holding hands with the glass of water and the
roof tile in the middle. When this is done, everyone shall be seated and
staring at the water in the glass.

It is said
that spirits may present in the glass and it is a demonic force, then the glass
may explode. Whatever happens, no one should flee or bad things will happen to
those who have participated in this game.

Method 2:

This is a
more powerful method and it calls upon earthbound spirits whatever they are. First
we must collect 7 pieces of old terracotta roof tiles and go to a known haunted
house or location at midnight.

Now lay the
terracotta tiles on the floor in the middle of the place.

Form a
circle around the roof tiles. Be careful as no one should face the head of the
line as the person may be possessed by spirit which will be released by the
ritual. The leader of the game now goes into the circle and takes up a tile and
then throw it onto the ground while saying, “breaking tile 1, I release the
spirit in realm 1!” He/she continues to break all 7 tiles and after the last
tile is broken, the group of players shall say:

“We release
you from your bond. Come up to us now!”

Now
everyone must sit quietly and stare at the center of the circle. Ghost or
whatever is there will appear.

The mirror game

This is a
simple game normally can be played alone in a known haunted place. One only
needs to take a mirror and use this mirror to scan his/her environment. One
must pay his/her attention to the reflections in the mirror and it is said
that, ghosts will appear in the mirror if there is one around.

Using leaves and morning dew

Another
popular way that enables one to see ghosts is by using leaves of willow (柳) or banyan
tree (榕樹) plucked early in the morning while the leaves are still wet with
morning dew. One only needs to rub these wet leaves onto one’s eye lids and it
is said that after the ritual, one is more likely to see ghosts after that.
This method is only effective for a few days however.

Others

There are
many other unorthodox methods also:

·Lying
in the coffin or grave hole.

oGhosts
will think that a new neighbor joining the crowd. So they just come and say ‘hello’.

·Apply
some grave dirt onto eye lids.

oPlease
don’t try this as the microbial will certainly harm anyone who tries it.

·Ground
eyes of crow to powder and apply on eye lids.

Perhaps
there are many more methods out there. Anyway, the above methods are posted for
your viewing pleasure only. Just a small disclaimer: try at your own risks.